Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/42

28 was Johnson, and that Percy was his master. He avowed that his object was to annihilate king and parliament, as the only possible means of ridding the catholics of their persecutions. When asked who were his accomplices, he replied that should never be known from him.

The king demanded of him how he could have the heart to destroy his children, and so many innocent souls with them. "Dangerous diseases," replied Fawkes, "require desperate remedies." To this courtiers who surrounded him with inquisitive looks and pressed him with questions, he returned a defiant stare, and retorted their remarks with unscrupulous sarcasm. One Scotch nobleman asked him the needless question of what he meant to do with so many barrels of gunpowder. "To blow the beggarly Scots back to their native mountains," replied Fawkes.

Finding that nothing could be extracted from the conspirator, on the morning of the 6th of November he was sent to the Tower, accompanied by orders that the secret was to be extorted from him by torture. The instructions of James in the State Paper Office direct that the gentle tortures were to be tried first, et sic per gradus ad ima tendatur. For three or four days this man of iron nerve and will endured the utmost agony they could put him to, without divulging a syllable, nor did he relax till he learned for certain that the conspirators had proclaimed themselves by appearing in arms.

Catesby and John Wright had left on the evening of the 4th for Dunchurch as agreed; Percy and Christopher Wright maintained their watch in London till they heard of the arrest of Fawkes, when they mounted and rode after Catesby and John Wright. Keyes and Rookwood still waited till morning, when finding the whole known, and all London in a state of terror, Keyes got away after the rest. Rookwood lingered in town till near noon, as he had a relay of vigorous horses ready, and when mounted, he rode furiously, overtook Keyes on Finchley Common, whence they rode to Turvey, in Bedfordshire. Rookwood still pursued his gallop till he overtook first Percy and Christopher Wright, and then Catesby and John Wright, and the whole troop rode on together till they came to lady Catesby's, at Ashby St. Legers, in Northamptonshire. They arrived there at six o'clock in the evening, Rookwood having ridden the whole eighty miles from London in little more than six hours. A party of conspirators, with whom was Winter, were just sitting down to supper when the fugitives came in, covered with mud and sinking with fatigue. Yet no time was to be lost. After a hasty refreshment, the whole company got to horse, and rode with all speed to Dunchurch.

The strange, haggard, and dejected appearance of the conspirators, and their eager closeting with Sir Everard Digby, awoke the suspicions of the hunting party. Before midnight a whisper of treason and its failure flew amongst them, and they quickly got to horse and rode off each his own way. In the morning there remained only Catesby, Digby, Percy, the Wrights, Winter, and a few servants.

Catesby now advised that they should strike across Worcestershire for Wales, where he flattered himself they might assemble the catholic gentry, and make a formidable stand. In pursuance of this romantic plan, they mounted and rode to Warwick, whence, after exchanging fresh horses for their jaded ones, they made for Grant's house at Norbrook, and thence rode on through Warwickshire and Worcestershire to Holbeach House, on the borders of Staffordshire. All the way they had called on the catholics to arm and join them for the rescue of their faith, but not a man would listen to the appeal. On this decided failure, instead of pushing for the mountains of Wales, they resolved to make a stand at Holbeach.

Meantime Sir Richard Walsh, the sheriff of Worcestershire, with the whole posse comitatis and a number of volunteer gentlemen, was in chase of them. They had diverged from their original route in the hope of being joined by the gentry, who only drove them from their doors; and now, no sooner did Stephen Littleton, the owner of Holbeach, learn the real facts, than, horrified at the certain destruction impending over these desperate men, he escaped at the earliest opportunity from the house. He was soon followed by Sir Everard Digby, on the plea of endeavouring to muster assistance. The remaining conspirators, who, with servants, did not amount to more than forty men, set about to put the house in a state of defence; but as they were drying some powder before the fire it exploded, horribly scorching Catesby and some others of the bystanders.

This accident so appalled them, impressing them with the idea that their enterprise was displeasing to God, that Robert Winter, Bates, the servant of Catesby, and others got away. About noon Sir Richard Walsh came up with his troop and surrounded the house, and summoned them to surrender. But preferring death in arms to the gallows, they defied their assailants, and resolved to fight to the last. On this the sheriff ordered one part of his followers to set fire to the house, and the other to batter in the gates. Catesby, blackened and nearly blinded by the powder, called on the rest to make a rush and die hand to hand with their assailants. In the courtyard, Catesby, the two Wrights, and Percy were mortally wounded. Catesby crawled on hands and knees into the house to a crucifix, which he seized in his hands and expired. Rookwood, dreadfully burnt and wounded, was seized as well as Winter, whose arm was broken. Percy died the next day. The rest of them were soon taken. Robert Winter had overtaken Stephen Littleton in a wood, and together they made their way to the house of a Mrs. Littleton, near Hagley, where they were secreted, without her knowledge, by her cousin, Humphrey Littleton, but were betrayed by a servant of Mrs. Littleton. Sir Everard Digby was pursued and taken in a wood near Dudley. They were all captured, with Keyes and Rates, Catesby's servant, who was taken in Staffordshire. Four days after the seizure of the captives at Holbeach, Tresham was arrested in London, notwithstanding his affected innocence, and his offers of assistance to the council; and thus were the authors of this insane and diabolical conspiracy destroyed, or safe in the hands of government.

Whilst these events had been taking place. Guido Fawkes had been undergoing repeated examinations before commissioners appointed by the king, and also by the chief justice Popham, Sir Edward Coke, attorney-general, and Sir William Wood, lieutenant of the Tower. He made free confessions of his own participation in the conspiracy, but as he had said that nothing should be learned from him as to his accomplices, so no tortures could force a word of betrayal from him. It was not till the conspirators were taken or killed that he would admit a word about them, and then only what was become well known by other means. When